"Home Run," starring Scott Elrod as a stereotypically ego-driven baseball star named Cory Brand, is charming at times, but Cory's transformation feels more than a bit contrived.

Baseball-set melodrama heavy on clichés, light on impact

Cory is a big-league star with big-league issues. When his problems with drinking and rage combine in a YouTube-viral moment that gets him suspended from baseball, Cory is sent to his small Oklahoma hometown to go through a league-mandated, 12-step program. But can he go home again - and find the faith he needs to defeat the demons that torment him?

Sorry if that all sounds like off-the-shelf melodrama, but that's what much of "Home Run" is. The movie, inspired by a faith-based program called Celebrate Recovery, is boilerplate rise-fall-redemption stuff that works more when it's trying to do less.

Played by Scott Elrod, Cory is the pop-culture-stereotypical sports star: arrogant, selfish and cynical. When his refusal to tone down his lifestyle lands his straight-laced brother (James Devoti) in the hospital, Cory, nudged by his agent (Vivica A. Fox), takes over as coach of his brother's kid's Little League team - where, it turns out, he'll share coaching duties with his old flame (Dorian Brown).

But while he has a winning streak on the field, Cory can't control his drinking or his temper - both of which are furthered by memories of his father's years of anger and abuse toward him. When everything comes to a head, only then does he start seriously considering the recovery program he's been paying lip service to.

The baseball scenes with the Little Leaguers do the job in the heartwarming department, but they don't fit with the rest of the story. Fox, as the biggest name in the cast and easily the movie's showiest presence, is largely wasted and feels out of place, which could explain why she all but disappears two-thirds of the way through the movie.

And while the stories of others in the Celebrate Recovery sessions are powerful in their simplicity and the strength through faith that they depict, Cory's own leap of faith feels as contrived as it feels inevitable.

Hate to say it, but a little less baseball and a little more wrestling with redemption might have driven home the point better.

About Chris Foran

Chris Foran is an assistant entertainment editor, overseeing the Tap Weekend, Tap Daily, Good Morning and TV Cue sections. He also writes about movies, books, pop culture and fun stuff to do in Milwaukee.